Virtual Assistant
FEMALE FRIDAY FEATURE – ALISON FOURIE
Female Friday Feature

ALISON FOURIE

VIRTUAL ASSISTANT AND CO-FOUNDER OF TAVASA

Alison plays a big role in our industry.  With Gaynor Paynter they recognised the need for Virtual Assistant services and started TAVASA in 2008.  TAVAS was the first group of its kind in South Africa to incorporate Virtual Assistants and Transcriptionists within the same group.  

I hope you will enjoy learning about her story and her amazing career as a Virtual Assistant, Female Entrepreneur and advocate for VA’s in our industry.

Contact her on:

My Story is a good one

Owner of AMF Typing Services est. 2001 and Co-Founder of TAVASA est. 2008. With over 25 years of secretarial/office administration experience and an old school typist.

My dream was to have my own typing business, working from home and I am working and living that dream. It has always been my goal to be able to help, assist, and share my knowledge and experience with Virtual Assistants within South Africa and Africa and to educate businesses, corporate’s, and entrepreneurs on the benefits of using Virtual Assistants.

I started AMF Typing Services 20 years ago. I had the idea to start up a typing company with no idea of how resigned at the end of the month and started at the beginning of the next.

I just started out by doing some research and looking for other typing companies and came across Virtual Assistants and various Australia VA websites and decided that is it, if they can do it then so can I and that was my start. It’s been tough at times but an Australian VA introduced me to my first real client and from then on it’s been up to me.

“A” is at the top of the alphabet so had to do something with that and needed the word Typing in my name, so decided on AMF Typing Service, A brings me upfront in the classified and directories etc and Typing is telling you what I do.

So, my name is easy to find on Search Engines etc.

Coping with dial-up when doing marketing, not easy as the Internet was not stable.

The fact that I provide typing services and have been doing this for 20 years and still going in an age of technology and computers.

Doing marketing and then more marketing and after 20 years, still doing marketing.

I never give up and kept positive knowing I could do marketing and get clients quickly and also retaining my long term clients once lockdown was over.

In the early years when the kids were small my hubby helped me around the house etc, the kids learnt that the office was mine for working. I have the full support of my hubby and kids.

I have had difficult clients and I learn as much as I can to enable me to work better with them. Today, if I think a client does not fit then I won’t take on that client.

No, because I believe it’s what I am meant to do.

I do marketing daily, even 10 minutes a day, a post here and there can be seen by anyone.

The actual safety of working from home in a safe environment.

Been recognised by other VAs around the world and them knowing I am on their same level as they are, as SA VAs are often labelled with Indian and Philipines VAs and not on the same level.

Kathie Thomas an Australian VA.

“I run my own race: I am in competition with no one. I have no desire to play the game of being better than anyone, in any way, shape or form, I only aim to improve, to be better than I was before…”

  1. To get people to think outside the box.
  2. To question everything.
  3. Stop fake news, we have no idea what is news and what is not.

AMF Typing Services the story of a Virtual Assistant in South Africa.

To do marketing daily, every little bit of marketing helps and only has to be seen by the right person to draw them to contact you further.

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